:eek:Templar banking practice also arranged safe transfer of funds for international and local trade, the Church and the State. In the medieval era it was forbidden for Christians to charge interest on loans and therefore money lending as a profession had been traditionally restricted to the Jews. This did little to enhance the reputation of the Jews as a racial group, which was already jeopardized by the persistent allegation that they were 'Christ killers'.

The Knights Templar found a way around this restriction which allowed them to lend considerable sums of money at interest without being subjected to the charge of usury. It was quite permissible to charge rent for the leasing of a house or land, so the Templars used this principle in their money lending and charged 'rent' rather than interest for their services rendered. The rent was payable at the time the loan was granted and was added to the capital sum borrowed. By this euphemism the Templars avoided being brought before the courts on the un-Christian charge of usury. Templar wealth was such that their financial services were not only sought by the merchants and landowners of feudal Europe, but by the princes of the Church and State. They lent to bishops to finance church building programs; to princes, kings and emperors to finance state works, building programs, wars and crusades. (Source)

Eventually, the "chits" themselves were used as currency throughout Europe. It was much more secure to carry the chits than the underlying valuable. The result was the Templars were able to use the same asset to back numerous chits. Thus, they created money out of nothing and were even able to charge interest for using their currency. In essence, they built the the first Federal Reserve System.